Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Pork Chops in A Mustard Cream Sauce Spiked with Rosemary and a Garden Update

Here is a quick and easy dinner for any day of the week. Thin-cut bone-in pork chops are seared on high heat, then topped with a lovely mustard cream and rosemary sauce. This was served on a bed of freshly made polenta. Add a nice green salad and dinner is now served.

This recipe has been slightly adapted from Nigella Lawson
(love her way of cooking)

Serves 2 to 3 people

Ingredients:

3 pork chops (I used chops with bone-in thin to medium cut)

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup apple cider

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Salt and pepper to taste

To prepare:

Pat pork chops dry and then lightly salt and pepper on both sides. On medium high heat sear about 5 minutes on each side.

Remove the chops, set aside and now add apple cider vinegar to deglaze the pan. Scape your spoon (I used a wooden one) to deglaze/loosen all those wonderful flavors that have stuck to the pan. Next add mustard, cream and a sprig of fresh rosemary.

After simmering sauce for a few minutes, pour over plated pork. Serve on a bed of polenta, pasta or gnocchi and garnish with a sprig of rosemary. Enjoy!

An update on the garden:

Lettuce likes the cooler days but also likes the sun. They fair best when the temperatures stay between 60 and 65 degrees. So far this year the weather has been pretty sporadic, some days it’s cool and warm and humid all at the same time. While living in California we always referred to this time of year as June gloom. Our lettuce plants have grown enough where I can start picking the outside edges first. I enjoy the baby leaves the best as they are the sweetest. This year we planted romaine, red oak, speckled leaf, red sail, butterhead and loose leaf. In these pictures I have the chard and kale mixed in with the lettuce, they are the perfect size to now to add into salads.

Our blueberries are coming along nicely, this will be our biggest yield yet, if the birds do not get them first. We will be heading to the U pick-it farm next month. This artichoke plant (below) survived the winter and now has 2 chokes on it, cannot wait.

If you have a garden, please share, I am new at this and I am always looking for improvements. Thanks!

Cheri Savory Spoon

Mysavoryspoon was first started in 2010 as a way to journal recipes that I had collected from cookbooks, magazines, family and friends. Most everything was savory, using legumes and whole grains. Along the way I discovered a love for baking. Now a couple times a month you might see some type of sweet pie or treat.

Your garden is looking really good! So much fun having your own fresh produce, isn't it? But what's really looking good is this dish -- great combo of flavors. Love pork and polenta -- so nice together, aren't they? Love the hit of mustard and rosemary too -- great flavors, and they combine so well. Really good stuff -- thanks.

Dear Cheri, your garden already looks amazing - so jealous of your green thumb. I plant as many herbs and things as possible but I always lag miles behind my planting plans...Your sauce looks very tempting and delicious, a very nice recipe to add to one´s repertoire!Andrea

Great recipe and beautiful garden. You have a little bit of everything and I love it! Never tried growing artichokes before - so cool! Do you think you can use apple juice instead of cider - or is it apple cider vinegar?

The sauce for these porks chops looks perfect and I love the Dijon, cream and rosemary mix. :) Your garden looks great! How exciting to produce blueberries! Next year I will try some bigger gardening projects, but for now I've planted small things like jalapenos and herbs in pots. Have a great weekend, Cheri!

Hi Cheri,Oh! These pork chops look so delicious and I love the hint of rosemary fragrance. So tempted to try these for our dinner ^-^! Thanks for sharing. Sad that I don't have a garden :( But your garden pics put a sunshine smile on my face! Have a great weekend!

Cheri - The pork looks wonderful and is similar to when we make using pounded slices of pork tenderloin. I specially like the addition of the apple cider - it gives it a very French touch! Your garden is looking beautiful, and I wish we could grow lettuce is like that in Arizona. (I imagine we might be able to do that in the winter…)

Very surprised to read your last sentence, Cheri. As you were describing the temps and times and varieties of lettuce, I knew you had a green thumb...Anyway, here's hoping you get to those blueberries first...And yes, your mustard sauce looks to be delicious...Bet I could use it on tofu, too =)

What a delicious looking dinner, Cheri! I'd love to try the pork chops on the grill. The past two nights something has been eating my fence right down off their supports. I'm guessing one of the two baby fawns living in the woods nearby or rabbits, but I haven't seen any in the yard. Gardening is a joy but with challenges :) I'm envious of your artichokes and blueberries!

Haha! Hi Susan, I knew there had to be something on that fence, but they all seem to love the peas thats for sure, last year just as my peas were at their peak a mole got to every single plant, I was fit to be tied.

Those pork chops look amazing! I bet the sauce tastes wonderful. Looks like dinner from a 5 star restaurant. How great you are already getting some lettuce from your garden. We struggle with birds stealing our grapes here. We are going to try netting this year.

Hi Shari, the birds ate all of our hucleberries last year and I'm not exaggerating, a day or to before we decided to pick we came home and the bushes were just about empty. We were thinking about some netting as well.